CARSON, Calif. (TNND) — Officials in California are investigating after the bodies of a young girl and a man were found floating in the Dominguez Channel in Carson on consecutive days.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives said Thursday that the deaths are being investigated separately and that “no connection has been established between the two incidents.”
The girl, believed to be between 6 and 12 years old, was found Tuesday after a golf-course patron spotted what appeared to be a body in the channel. Deputies said she was in a “severe state of decomposition.”
Bodies found in California channel Aug. 2 and Aug. 3 (KABC via CNN Newsource)
Her identity and race remain unknown. Investigators do not know where she entered the water or how long she had been there, and an autopsy is pending.
Detectives have contacted neighboring agencies, are reviewing records for possible matches, canvassing the area with the department’s homeless outreach team, seeking surveillance video and creating a forensic reconstruction sketch.
A Black man believed to be between 50 and 60 was found Wednesday after workers at a nearby refinery reported seeing a body, officials said. Detectives believe he had been dead for less than 24 hours.
“There were no obvious signs of trauma or foul play,” sheriff’s Homicide Bureau Lt. Christopher Oakley said, adding that his cause of death and identity remain pending an autopsy.
Investigators are also checking missing-person reports and seeking witnesses and video in the man’s case.